CoinTrapTM Commentary: Made of 90% silver and 10% copper, the Winged Liberty Head Dime, commonly referred to as the Mercury Dime, is considered by many to be the most beautiful coin ever produced by a government. The obverse of the coin features the mythical goddess of Liberty, with wings extending from a cap symbolizing freedom of thought. Many mistakenly thought the goddess Liberty was Mercury, the Roman messenger god, and so it eventually became known as the Mercury Dime.

The design was produced by noted sculptor Adolph Weinman, who won a 1916 contest for the creation of the design. The reverse of the coin features a fasces, or bundle of sticks, together with an olive branch, representing the contrasting concepts of war readiness and desires for peace.

The 1916-D is a key date and is highly sought after by coin collectors from around the world.

Coin Value: What is the value of your Winged Liberty Head dime? This can depend on several different factors. Nevertheless, the main factors that will determine the value or worth of your Mercury Dime are these: (1) your coin’s grade, (2) finish, (3) the mint mark (e.g., S for San Francisco and D for Denver), and (5) scarcity/demand. Regarding your coin’s grade, it has become a standard in the field of numismatics (coin collecting) to grade coins on a point-scale from 1 (poor) to 70 (perfect). This is also referred to as the “Mint State” or just “MS” for short. Click here to find the up-to-date estimated value of your Winged Liberty Head coin from the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS®), which takes the factors mentioned above into account*. If you do not know the grade of your Mercury dime coin, you can take it to your local coin dealer and ask that they have it graded at one of the three major coin grading services.

After winning a public contest for the design of a new US dime, Adolph Weinman’s Winged Liberty Dime was put into circulation in 1916.

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